Around The League ... Redden To Florida?... More Avery ... Chelios Calls Pred Fans Hillbilly's!

Jacques Martin has announced that he's going to stay in Florida as their general manager. He also noted that his main objective is to grab a puck-moving offensive defenseman to help out the Panthers. Does Martin's long relationship with soon to be unrestricted free agent Wade Redden come into play here? Highly doubtful that Redden will sign with a non-playoff team but stranger things have happened. Redden had his best years under Martin.

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The Colorado-Minnesota series is getting extremely nasty and even the reporters covering the games are getting pissy. Woody Paige from the Denver Post sounds like he might start throwing his fists around if the Wild don't simmer down and play nice:

"After being humiliated in the first period and being completely out of it in the second period, the Wild turned feral — brutishly trying to "send a message." ....

The Avs were solidly on their game, and the Wild had no game, no skates, no effort Tuesday night, so the Minnesota players went Daniel Day-Lewis on the Avalanche. There must be blood; there must be fights; there must be stupidity; there must be ejections; there MUST be suspensions.

The Wild players' mothers had to be really proud of them. That was not pretty. And coach Jacques Lemaire should have been ashamed. That was not nice."

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There is still a large buzz surrounding free-agent prospect Fabian Brunnstrom and now that Vancouver canned GM Dave Nonis, the Red Wings feel that they might have a shot at signing him after being rebuffed in favour of the Canucks earlier. The problem is that he wants 2 million and a guarantee of top-six minutes on the roster. Now he's starting to get some criticism as James Mirtle reports in the Globe and Mail:

"He was brilliant during the regular season, but had a really bad playoff with Färjestad," said one Swedish reporter. "[$2-million] sounds a bit much, doesn't it? I mean, he did play in the Swedish Division 1 — which actually means the third division, after Elitserien and Allsvenskan — last year. And I don't think he will make the roster for the national team in the world championships."

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Larry Brooks of the NY Post thinks the league went overboard in its reaction to Sean Avery's circus act against the Devils:

"The demonizing of Avery in the wake of his creative shenanigans is completely out of line. What shrine, exactly, did he desecrate? What player's leg did he step on with his skate blade? What player did he send flying face-first into the boards on an icing touch-up?"

TSN actually compiled a Top Ten of Sean Avery moments. I don't care what anyone says - this guy is just as entertaining as Alex Ovechkin.




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Chris Chelios has a penchant for saying some insane things, like the time he threatened Gary Bettman's family during the 1995 lockout. This is sort of pales in comparison but Chelios is still not making any new friends. Here he describes Nashville fans:

"Yeah, they're hillbillyish. ... I don't know what to say, hillbilly or country."

"They are a very emotional crowd, exciting crowd, loud, so it's actually a fun place to play on the road."

TSN personality Pierre McGuire has been telling anyone who will listen that Detroit might be in trouble against Nashville because he doesn't believe Dominik Hasek is playing good right now. Others in the media are starting to notice . Never seen so much concern over a team that is actually leading their series.